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Hello, this is OctaneDragon, a fairly low elo jungler. I wrote this to share my insight, as I believe that many players down at my elo lack knowledge of jungling. Even if you are out of the 1000 elo bracket, I still consider what I wrote to be a good read if you plan on improving your ability to jungle. Hopefully, you will be able to learn from this and not waste your time. Happy jungling ^^

WHAT YOU NEED TO JUNGLE

-Runes

The bare minimum for runes is armour seals, but even then, you pretty much need full rune pages to jungle competitively. If you only have a limited amount of rune pages, I would recommend using this rune page as it can be used by many junglers.
9x ATKSPEED RED
9x ARMOUR YELLOWS
9x SCALING MAGIC RESIST BLUES
3x MOVEMENT SPEED QUINTESSENES
Total Cost: 13530 IP
-The mindset of a Jungler

Patience is also neccesary, as oftentimes, especially in solo queue, as a jungler, you will have to deal with the criticism of numerous players regardless of whether you have done anything wrong or not. This means that if you are one to burst into tears the instant someone says anything negative about you, jungling is not for you. You also need to keep a clear head and not get overly frustrated or break down mentally over a failed gank or in while being counter jungled/caught counter jungling.

Jungling is also alot about prediciting what an enemy will do.

WHAT MAKES A CHAMPION A GOOD JUNGLER

Note: The junglers listed here are purely my opinion and you may disagree wtih them.

Ganking: (Maokai , Nautilus, Jarvan, Alistar, Shaco ,Nocturne) Junglers enter lanes in an attempt to kill the enemy laning there. Some champions are better at this than others. Champions strong in this aspect generally have good crowd control but are slow and easily counterjungled.

Sustain: (Fiddlesticks, Warwick, Nunu, Trundle) Junglers with sustain can stay in the jungle for extend periods of time. This is not so important in the new jungle, however. These junglers are usually fairly slow and have weak ganks until they hit level six.

Dueling: (Lee Sin, Udyr, Trundle, Shyvana, Olaf) Dueling is the champion’s ability to fight an enemy in a one on one situation. Even if you are playing a strong duelist champion, be weary of fighting an enemy one on one even if it is on your jungle as the tides of battle can easily change when an enemy laner joins the battle.

Junglers are often starved of gold, and for that reason are often tanks or tanky supports (as they don’t require much gold) and frequently build GP5
There are many other factors, but these are the main ones.

Recommended Junglers for player who have just started jungling: Udyr, Warwick, Mundo, Trundle, Nunu, Fiddleticks
.GANKING

Ganking is the act of entering a lane to help attack an enemy laner. Junglers are often expected to help gank allied lanes and not ganking a lane will often result in angry teammates. Although other lanes can also help gank, the jungler is often the main ganker as he is always ‘MIA’ and can be anywhere at once. A successful gank does not always end with a kill, oftentimes forcing the enemy to use a summoner spell to escape or dealing a large amount of damage to an enemy laner can be considered to be a successful gank.

-Communication

Before ganking, you should always inform your teammates of your intentions. You should always either ping the enemy you are ganking or tell your teammates through the chat that you are ganking, ideally both. If you do this it is much more likely that your teammate can help set up your gank instead of completely ignoring you, causing you to waste your time.

-The lanes

In the current meta, usually the easiest lane to gank is top lane. Top lanes often don't have any wards early on, and when helped with a gank early will often snowball harder than most other lanes.

Mid lane is difficult to gank because the distance between the two towers is quite small, meaning that mid laner's don't have to walk very far to return to the safety of their turret. Sometimes the bot lane support will also ward for the mid lane. A succesful gank in mid lane allows you to have greater dragon control, the turrets in mid lane are the most important in terms of map control too.

Bot lane is also difficult to gank as bot lane often has a support, meaning that most of the time, when you go bot there will be a ward up, meaning it is very difficult to gank from the river. If you must gank from the river, either a) buy and oracles or b) tell your support to pink ward the enemy ward or c) Communicate with your bot lane and time enemy wards and gank immediately after the ward expires. Option C only works as players have the tendency not to replace wards immediately after they expire.

-When to gank

You will need to think before making the decision to gank a lane. Just blindly running into a lane will often achieve nothing except wasting your own time, or, in the worst case scenario, result in your death and the donation of doublebuffs to the enemy laner.

When deciding whether or not to gank a lane, these are the key factors

How far away is the lane? If you are at top and your bot lane is screaming for ganks, chances are if you just run across the map and try to get right to bot, by the time you arrive you will already have wasted a minute of time and the conditions have changed into something less-than-ideal.

Can the enemy laner kill me? If you are ganking a Leblanc with only two bars of health left, chances are that she will be the one killing you. If she does end up killing you, you are putting your lane at a extreme disadvantage by giving the enemy laner a gold and exp advantage, and perhaps even one of your jungle buffs.

You will also have to communicate with your team or watch the items of the enemy to see which lanes are warded, and where the wards are. Sometimes you can navigate a path around the wards to gank, other times you can clear the wards with oracles/vision wards. Sometimes, if the enemy is extremely overextended you can just walk through their warded area and kill them.

Lastly, you have to consider your kill potential VS the enemies escapes. If the enemies flash is down, you are much more likely to score a kill. If you have a pantheon or twisted fate in lane, the extra crowd control on the enemy can be extremely helpful. For example, if you are Udyr jungle and you are trying to gank an Ezreal at bot, and your bot lane consists of Soraka and Kog’Maw, you probably can’t do much except waste time.

Other factor’s that are also very important are:

What enemies are MIA? Can I get counterganked?
How much does my lane need this gank?
Does performing this gank give your team extra control over objectives such as dragon? (e.g. ganking top 15 minutes in gives the enemy an easy dragon, but scoring a double kill on bot allows your team to do dragon)

-Towerdiving

Tower diving is an extremely risky play that involves trying to kill an enemy under their turret. It is often not recommended for newer players.
When tower diving, these are the most important points.

Trading a kill for a death is probably not worth it

When towerdiving, do not stay in the area for too long

If there are enemies MIA, you are vulnerable to counterganks during the towerdive

Be careful of enemy crowd control and make sure you are more mobile than your opponent during the towerdive (With experience, you will be able to know when you can kill an enemy under a turret and when you can’t.)
-Direct Ganks/Lane ganks

Direct ganks and lane ganks are similar and are effective in that they are difficult to ward against. In a direct gank, the jungler walks directly from the lane turret to the enemy. This often requires allies to help crowd control the enemy so the enemy cannot escape the gank.

Lane ganking, or bush ganking, involves going through the lane brush and hiding there until an opportunity arises. (make sure enemy minion’s can’t see you enter the bush). In higher elo, this method is often used, however when lane ganking, you risk falling behind a lot if an opportunity does not appear.

Another notable method of ganking is to watch the enemies inventory, if they have a ward that they are going to place in an un-warded region, you can sit in the bush you expect them to ward and jump at them the instant they place it, allowing an easy gank.
-Counterganking

Counterganking is the act of helping a lane in the event that they get ganked. This can be extremely effective in turning what originally looked like an easy kill into themselves getting slaughtered. This can be done by warding an enemy jungle and going to the lane that they are headed towards or predicting enemy movements.

An example of prediction is that it is 3 minutes in, and purple side’s Udyr has been mia the whole time. Blue sides top lane is overextended and right under the enemy turret. Chances are, Udyr will show up at top sometime in the next minute to gank him. If you can predict that, you can be there and make sure Udyr doesn’t get a easy picking.
Long distance teleports such as pantheon’s ultimate or nocturnes ultimate are also very effective tools for counterganks.
-Try to give your laner the kill

Although some may disagree with this, I believe that laners scale much better with gold in comparison to junglers. 300 additional difference doesn't mean much to you in the jungle, but it is a world of difference in the lane

MAP AWARENESS

-Use the minimap

When you jungle, you don't just go afk and start looking at porn when doing wraiths. You have to be using the minimap. Look at the minimap AT ALL TIMES. Simply glancing at the minimap can tell you alot and help you make much better decisions. This awareness is very useful for knowing when it is safe to do certain actions such as counter jungling or securing objectives. E.g. By glancing at the minimap, you see that the enemy mid and jungle both went to gank top when dragon is up. This allows you to take dragon and perhaps give your team a 1000 gold lead.
-Look at a laner that you are planning to gank.

As the jungler, you don't need to focus hard when you are busy farming your wolves. By looking at an enemy laner, you can learn alot about them. Does the enemy mordekaiser overextend to autoattack-last hit minions? Does the Solo top Lee sin look like hes going to go all-in on your top? If you find common patterns in your enemy, you can use this to your advantage. If Lee Sin goes all in, it is the perfect time for you to gank. If Mordekaiser overextends to use his auto to last hit a minion, theres another free kill. By watching enemy patterns when you are moving through an area you suspect is warded, you can also tell if an area is warded.

COUNTER JUNGLING AND INVASION

-What is this?!

Counterjungling is that act of entering an enemy jungle to steal small jungle camps, buff camps, or even hunting an enemy jungler down in his own jungle and trying to kill him. Invasion is when a team moves into the enemy jungle at level one before the minions spawn to attempt to steal an enemy buff camps or kill the enemy jungler/people guarding his jungle. When invasion occurs, a 5v5 fight at level 1 could potentially happen. Invasion is much more frequent organized high-level play.

-When is it a good time to invade?

When your team has a stronger level-1 teamcomp, it is often good to try to get a level 1 teamfight out of an invasion. Champions such as Anivia, Janna, and Alistar are examples of champions that are very strong in level 1 teamfights, because they have AoE crowd control effects. Taric and Blitzcrank are also very strong as blitz can simply 'pull' a kill while taric provides additional armor to his whole team. When an enemy jungler is very reliant at starting at a certain buff camp, a level 1 teamfight becomes much more favorable. An example of this is how people like to invade Amumu because he is extremely reliant on blue to clear his jungle early on. The team with clairvoyance also has a large advantage in invasion

How do I defend against an invasion?

If you suspect the enemy team is going to invade, tell your team to guard the jungle entrances/where your first buff spawns. If the enemy team has a stronger teamcomp, defending may be unfavorable in that it may lead to your team giving away many kills. When you get invaded and your team isn't there to defend you, you can choose to either start at your other buff camp, or start at the enemy teams identical buff camp.

-How to counter jungle

If you are trying to learn counter jungling, I recommend Udyr or Shyvana. When you counter jungle small camps such as wolves, wraiths, or doublegolems, take the big creep and leave one small creep behind so the camp doesn't respawn (Unless you know you will be at the camp to take it again 1 minute later). After all, the big creep is the one that is actually valuable. When stealing a buff camp, it is often advisable to take the entire camp so you get a timer and the enemy doesn't. With a timer, you know when the buff camp will respawn and you can be there when it spawns allowing you to take them again immedietely after they respawn before the enemy jungler can get there. If you are trying to kill the enemy jungler, tell your nearest lanes to push hard so their help is easily accesible in a skirmish. To kill the enemy jungler, make sure you are stronger than him then engage him when a) know the path he is taking or b) caught him with a ward. Crowd control is also extremely helpful.

-When to counter jungle

You almost always want to consider counter jungling when you are playing a fast clearing/strong duelist in the jungle, such as Udyr, Shyvana, or Lee Sin. However doing so can be extremely risky. It is not worth risking your life over taking a blue wraith or orange wolf. Before randomly taking a stroll into the enemy jungle, consider these factors:

Who is the enemy jungler and what time is it in game? This is extremely important for the first few minutes into the game. You don't want to check Udyr's wraiths 3 minutes in game because chances are 1) It won't be up, and 2) Udyr will probably catch you and kill you.

How do laners act when you are going into their jungle? If you are going to try and steal enemy wraiths, but as you go there mid is edging ever closer to the wraiths, you should probably get the hell out. This could mean that a) You have been caught by a ward or b) Mid is just randomly moving around in lane or c) Mid wants to go farm wraiths. a) is the worst case scenario, and it is also the most likely scenario, so you should probably leave. Not worth risking your life over that blue wraith.

Who is MIA, where were they last seen, and how long ago? You don't want to walk into the enemy jungle when five people are MIA, as chances are, you will die. However, if the enemy jungle is at top and you know purple side blue buff is up, in most cases it is a good idea to attempt to take his blue.

Can you and your nearby lanes out-duel the enemy jungler? Look at your laners levels. Look at their items. Look at the enemies. Then decide, whether you and your lane can win a skirmish, for if you can't, if you get caught you are in really big trouble.

What ward coverage do I have? This is quite important. If enemies suddenly leave their lane and go MIA, it is really helpful to see if they are coming to you, or perhaps just warding or doing whatever laners do. If you can see where their position is when they are trying to hunt you down in their jungle, escaping is alot easily

What escape routes do I have? If you get seen stealing red, this can be the difference between life and death. You could get slowly getting pummeled to death, or you could leave their jungle without a scratch. Flashing over baron/dragon ward when stealing red buff is a common example of an escape plan when things go wrong.

-Im being counter jungled! What do?

Does that Udyr keep stealing your wraiths? Did Shyvanna attack you when you were doing your red buff? Don't panic.
*If you see an enemy jungler in your jungle, keep pinging the enemy jungler to get those **** laners to come over and help you! If they don't, their throwing the game.
*If you frequently find your wraiths being stolen or any other camp, clean the small ones, and ward your jungle entrances. Warding those entrances allow you to see when an enemy jungler has entered your jungle, allowing you and your team to react appropriately, perhaps killing him.
*If you know an enemy has entered your jungle, but you can do nothing about it, then consider entering his jungle.and taking some of his stuff too.
*If you are falling hopelessly behind due to an early death or for whatever reason, just keep farming your jungle. Do not leech laner experience, as you are hurting your team, instead, just keep farming until you are fairly equal on levels with the enemy.

ORACLES ELIXIR

Buying this item grants you stealth detection, however be aware that this 400 gold item is lost upon death.
It is often bought by the support or the jungler.
-When to buy it?

It is almost never advisable to buy Oracles Elixir when you are behind as when you are behind, you cannot spare 400 gold. When you are behind, you are also more prone to lose it. Buy this when you are ahead, have gold to spare and suspect the enemy is warding. If you are playing a tanky-CC jungler (e.g. Nautilus, Maokai), you should only buy it after you have at least one gold-per-five item, however it is ideal that is only bought after you have two.
-What to do when you have it?

For this first few minutes you have Oracles Elixir, do not make risky plays. If you lose an Oracles just after buying it, that is four hundred gold down the drain. Instead, go around clearing your jungle and clearing enemy wards to remove vision and instill fear into your enemy. Alot of the time, enemy wards will be placed along the river.